Re: New IC Tank Design
Before I start – I noticed with my IAT gauge and before any of the above mods; when I was driving hard and the IAT’s were way up, If I were to pull over and stop the engine – similar to running a ¼ mile and then pulling into the pits and shutting down – when I would re-start in an ½ hour or so – the IAT’s would be raging – with no air or coolant flowing thru the IC – the temps just skyrocket. My mods and my tests today with icing where an attempt to combat and tame the IAT’s.
DRY ICE ALONE:
With the SRT shut down after being driven somewhat hard and the IAT's showing around 125 deg and the engine temp gauge at the 1/2 way mark, I could reduce the IC coolant temp from 105 deg to under 50 Deg (cold has my thermometer displays) by adding lots and lots of dry ice, running the pump to circulate the warm coolant trapped in the system back into the tank and then keep adding dry ice. Remember, my pump is set up to run with just the key turned on.
Problem with this was the dry ice makes so much pressure by releasing CO2, that when I capped the IC tank - the vapor (looks like smoke from a witches brew) would shoot out of the overflow tube and hiss – no doubt you could get black flagged before you ever got staged. So I waited until all the CO2 escaped and started the engine - the IAT gauge at risen to 140 deg and would only cool back down to around 120 deg when idling. I went about 1/2 way around the block - not boosting - similar to going from the pits to staging - I pulled over - opened the hood and IC tank cap and stuck my thermometer in the IC tank – the coolant had already risen to 105 deg. I figured the warm outside air flowing around the HE, along with the hot intake air flowing through the IC core had warmed the coolant back up very quickly.
DRY ICE AND WET ICE COMBO
So I went back to the garage and I repeated the above process - only this time I removed about 1/3 of the coolant from the tank - chilled the remaining coolant back down with dry ice, waited for the CO2 to stop, then filled the tank up with distilled ice. Re-started the SRT and drove around the block - stopped and checked the temp of the tank coolant - around 80 Deg – better - got back in and drove down a little side street with my IAT dropping pretty quickly to 110 deg and then stomped on it to engage the SC – and IAT's rose quickly to 125 deg. This was the best I could do.
BOTTOM LINE
This “ice therapy” would only be effective for a very short time – enough for a ¼ mile run if you can get staged quickly. Otherwise the ambient air temp / intake air is going to warm the coolant up.
I would say that with the factory-stock setup – after a few runs you would be staging with IAT’s around 145-165 deg. By just separating the engine and IC coolant - - and no ice you could reduce IAT's temps down 25-30 deg at staging and with the “Ice Therapy” and perhaps a big bag of dry ice on top of the supercharger while waiting in the pits – you could stage with IAT’s at 110 - 100 deg or less – depending on the OAT and the time it took to stage. But that would only be at staging - once the SC begins to spin…….but it would be a better starting point.
IMO - Serious racers would probably do better with a water/meth injection system. The HE and IC are only so efficient – best you can hope for is the HE to reduce the coolant to around 15-25 deg above ambient; perhaps more on a real cold day. The IC core is even more inefficient - no matter how hot or how cool my IAT gauge would read – the IC coolant was pretty stable at 105 deg. I would say that the IC is only good at reducing IAT’s when the temps begin to really rage when the SC kicks in. After that you would need to chill the IC coolant beyond what can really be done or sustained for any length of time.
Separating the IC coolant and the engine coolant had the best overall effect long term on both the IC coolant temp and the IAT’s. After that everything else is short lived. I don’t even think that running the pump all the time is all that effective has the IC does very little to cool the IAT’s when the supercharger is not engaged. It might help on cars that spin the SC all the time, but not the Crossfire.
Wrapping the intercooler seems to help prevent heat soak. It now takes longer for the IAT’s to rise when the engine is warm – my wrap’s big advantage is when you shut the engine down - it help keeps the IC core from cooking and making the system work that much harder to cool.
It was a fun mod – not too darn expensive – only the cost of the two tanks were above what I would have paid for the LET HE and pump any way.
Good luck guys!!